MTV brings back all the great music videos

Do you remember when MTV actually played music videos? Now you don’t have to: The company’s new website has posted pretty much every video that MTV ever aired, and all of them are free (and legal) to watch.

You’ll see spare-no-expense epics (Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” just celebrated its 25th anniversary), bare-bones relics (e.g., Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart”), and early work by some of today’s most interesting directors (we’re especially fond of Michel Gondry’s videos for Björk). You can also revisit Unplugged and watch classic Video Music Awards performances by Madonna, TLC, and Kanye West. The network’s attitude toward copyright-infringing sites like YouTube appears to be: “If you can’t beat ’em, eat ’em.” Works for us. Quick — to the video vault!

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